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Hey all! It's been a bit since I've blogged about watercolor instruction. I've been crazy with homeschooling my offspring, getting Birds For Babies going and just life in general. I DID paint a peony recently, so I thought you'd like to see some step pics and hear about the process. So, I shot a photo of this peony in my garden, a nice, clear close-up. After sketching it out large, I started with an entire wet on wet wash over the whole page with Indian Yellow and Permanent Rose. I tried to stay out of the areas that were white where the sun was the strongest. This wash should be loose and quick. 
Allow your first wash to dry completely, possibly overnight or with a hair dryer. Now, I'm going to be working petal by petal, jumping around. I wet an entire petal shape and wash on Ultramarine blue with Violet and Permanent Rose. On some petals, I only barely touch the edges with color. 
I'll post a few pics of me just continuing to work petal by petal. Make sure that when you start one petal, that the petals adjacent to it are completely dry or else you will have a mess of bleeding colors. Keep your edges neat by not wetting all the way to the edge and then painting to the edge with your brush loaded with color. 
I'm generally using the same mix of all of those colors, varying the color intensity as I interpret it from the photo. The shadows all have the same colors as well. I love the process of seeing it being carved out of the page, almost 3-D -ish...if that's a word. 
So, I need to make the decision as to whether or not I'm going to put a dark background on in the corners. I decided to put a dark background on, but afterwards, I regretted it. I think if I ever paint this again, I will leave the corners white b/c the impact is more delicate. 
Towards the very end, I glazed on a wash of Indian Yellow to warm things up...but looking back at the pics, I'm undecided if it improved it or not. It was definitely a learning experience! 
 Here it is framed! Happy painting, my fellow artists! Luv, Cady
4 Comments
10/7/2014 04:21:44 pm
Hello Cady! OH MY!! I just found my way to your blog via God's guiding hand!! Your step by step process of painting the peony is fascinating for me as a novice watercolor painter. It looks so vibrant yet holds the porcelain quality that many peonies remind me of. To my amazement as I scrolled on through you blog I found the paintings of the marbles that I first saw on your blog header! WOW!!! Tonight it was too much for me to take in the step by step process you offered, BUT I will seek to read and learn from what you have so graciously taken the time to share ASAP. THANK YOU for your generous sharing of your time and talent! God is awakening my latent artistic talents as I age! What FuN to find online mentors!!!
Cady
10/8/2014 05:25:03 am
Hi Sandie...so glad you enjoyed it and that it has inspired you! I really enjoy hearing from people who are learning and feeling encouraged.
Bridget Geiger
6/30/2016 09:31:52 pm
It is so gorgeous! I really love painting and looking at large florals, this one is fantastic! Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
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About CadyI'm a wife and mother of four kids. I homeschool, paint, run, and garden! I am always interested in digging truths out of Scripture. Here, you'll find my thoughts on art, adoption, gardening, mothering, homeschooling, books and whatever else is on my mind. Enjoy! QuoteCreativity doesn't exist in a vacuum - like skepticism, it's a means, not an end. It cries out for a theme. To treat creativity as an end in itself is to assume godlike character for humans as though they could create ex nihilo. -J. Cheane Archives
August 2016
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